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Four Impromptus, D935 Op 142

Introduction

The title of ‘Impromptu’ was not initially Schubert’s own: it was the Viennese publisher Tobias Haslinger who labelled the first two pieces from Schubert’s first set, D899, as such when he issued them in December 1827. Haslinger may have had in mind the Impromptus of the Bohemian composer Jan Václav Voříšek which had become popular in the early 1820s. Schubert must have known Voříšek’s pieces, and he was happy enough to use the same title when he composed his second set, D935, which he offered to the Mainz firm of Schott & Co in February 1828 as ‘Four Impromptus which can appear singly or all four together’. Schott, however, declined to publish them, and they did not appear in print until more than ten years after Schubert’s death, when Anton Diabelli issued them with a dedication to Liszt.

It was Schumann who confidently asserted that Schubert’s second set of Impromptus was really a sonata in disguise. ‘The first [piece] is so obviously the first movement of a sonata, so completely worked out and self-contained’, declared Schumann, ‘that there can be no doubt about it.’ It is true that the first and last of the pieces are in the same key of F minor, but neither is in sonata form; and while Beethoven managed to write a four-movement sonata entirely bereft of sonata form (Op 26), it would hardly have been a characteristic procedure for Schubert.

Schubert’s opening piece is conceived on a broad scale, and it contains a wealth of inspired material. The jagged opening theme is followed by a passage of gently rippling semiquavers whose thematic outline eventually gives rise to a wonderfully expressive melody in repeated chords. There is also a contrasting episode that has the pianist’s left hand, playing the melody, constantly crossing back and forth over the right. Despite the fact that it unfolds for the most part pianissimo, Schubert clearly wanted this passage played with peculiar intensity: the marking of appassionato for such intimate music is a characteristic gesture, and one we find again in a similar context in the slow movement of the E flat major piano trio, D929, and the ‘Notturno’ for piano trio, D897.

The second of the D935 Impromptus is similar in form and mood to the last of the six Moments musicaux, in the same key of A flat major—both are essentially a minuet and trio in Allegretto tempo; while the third Impromptu is a famous set of variations on a theme that recalls the melody Schubert borrowed from his incidental music to the play Rosamunde when he came to write the slow movement of his A minor string quartet, D804. Of the five variations, the third is an agitated piece in the minor, and the fourth broadens the tonal horizons of the piece by moving into the warmth of G flat major. The final variation is a delicate display piece, but Schubert characteristically brings proceedings to an end with a coda that is at once slower and simpler than the theme itself.

There is a decidedly Hungarian flavour to the last Impromptu of the set—not only in its strong off-beat accents, but also the scale-like improvisatory flourishes which seem to conjure up the sound of a cimbalom. The middle section, too, is not without its rushing scales, and there is a coda in which the music gathers pace, before eventually coming to an end with a scale sweeping down over the entire compass of the keyboard.

Recordings

'On these two CDs you hear two hours and 20 minutes of the most wonderful piano music anyone has ever written. A great deal of it is played with almos ...'Una interpretación a nivel altísimo. Muy ben sonido' (CD Compact, Spain)» More